Last year, RESPECT successfully completed an extensive renovation of its headquarters, now a green building, and was invited to enter its office space in the Office of the Year competition, where it was among the finalists in the Financial Institutions category.
The Office of the Year competition is held annually and aims to highlight the importance of improving the working environment as an essential employee benefit. RESPECT recognizes that the success of a company is dependent on its employees, so it interviewed three of them who were directly involved in the successful completion of the renovation and who therefore made it so successful in this competition.
Tereza - Board Office Manager
As part of the refurbishment, we had a whole team of people ensuring the ongoing operation. My role was to act as a liaison between our Director and the rest of the team to ensure that everything was running to the Director's expectations. At the same time, I was the right hand to the project manager, I was very much in contact with our architect and I also took orders in relation to furniture and fittings. It was challenging to renovate while the company was fully operational. We were remodeling the building floor by floor, always having to move out one floor with colleagues and then move back in. It was difficult to reconcile the needs of the company and the building at the same time, the most difficult was the reconstruction of the reception area, i.e. the entrance area, where it complicated the whole operation the most. However, despite all the obstacles, the reconstruction was very fast, we had the "new building" fully available after ¾ year, so hopefully it was worth it. The vision of working in new premises was a motivation for me. Not only the furniture and equipment is new, but the reception floor has become a beautiful representative place and we have added several meeting rooms for meetings. By replacing the air conditioning and some other technologies, we are saving energy, and therefore nature, and that is also an important added value for me.
Vlaďka - Facility Manager
My task was to oversee the overall progress of the renovation, to keep track of the deadlines, to ensure work safety, and above all to keep the office running smoothly. It was challenging to coordinate the smooth running of the renovation with the office so that colleagues could work comfortably, even though the construction work was going on behind their backs. I had to be stricter with my colleagues and partially restrict their existing working conditions, which was sometimes unpleasant. I apologise to my colleagues for that, but without that it would not have been possible. The successful completion of the renovation and the vision of a beautiful and modern office space was a great motivation for me and I believe that the whole event went without major problems.
Honza - Deputy IT Director
I enjoyed being part of the team and it was a nice change to my work duties. I designed the technology within the building, such as the booking system for meeting rooms, attendance system, presentation options, data connection to the building next door and ensuring sufficient connection capacity to the proposed number of seats. The hardest part was coordinating the technology vendors with the building process and making sure everything was wired as it should be. I would not change anything about the progress of the renovation and would happily join this team again. At the same time, I think it's always good to learn something new.
